Shawarma

Shawarma is a popular street food in the Middle East that originated in the Levant during the Ottoman Empire. It consists of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in an inverted cone, and roasted on a slow-turning vertical spit, with the surface routinely shaved off once cooked. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it may also be made with chicken, turkey, beef, falafel, or veal, and is now a popular street food throughout the world.

The technique of grilling a vertical stack of meat and cutting it off as it cooks first appeared in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire as döner kebab, from which both Greek gyros and Levantine shawarma are derived. This innovation is credited to a Turkish butcher named Iskender, whose shop in Bursa offered grilled meats layered on a vertical spit and slowly carved off. The name "shawarma" comes from the Turkish term for rotisserie, and it appears in English and Arabic as early as the 19th century; an 1895 Egyptian Arabic-English dictionary translated it as "rich stew, roast meat". Shawarma led to the development of the Mexican dish tacos al pastor in the early 20th century, brought there by Lebanese immigrants. The dish is especially popular in Ottawa, Ontario, where a large Lebanese diaspora community exists; in 2024, Ottawa City Council declared the city the "shawarma capital of Canada". Shawarma is prepared from thin cuts of seasoned and marinated meat, stacked on a skewer about a meter high, with pieces of fat sometimes added for juiciness. A motorized spit slowly turns the stack in front of an electric or gas-fired heating element, and shavings are cut off with a long, flat knife. Spices may include cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, or paprika, and in some areas, baharat. It is commonly served as a sandwich or wrap in flatbreads such as pita, shrak, laffa, or lavash. Some preparations forgo the vertical spit for a traditional horizontal one, allowing cooking over hot coals. Regional varieties abound: in the Middle East, chicken shawarma is typically served with garlic sauce, fries, and pickles, while beef shawarma often comes with tarator sauce made from tahini. Syrian-style shawarma uses garlic sauce and chicken breast and thigh meat, whereas Egyptian-style commonly includes tahini sauce and may be served in eish fino bread. Palestinian shawarma is served with sumac, onions, and tahini.